information about Fukushima published in English in Japanese media info publiée en anglais dans la presse japonaise
4 Août 2015
August 4, 2015
Kyodo
HIROSHIMA – The Hiroshima Municipal Government said it expects representatives from a record 100 countries to attend its annual ceremony Thursday to mark the U.S. atomic bombing as peace activists continued to gather in the city.
The participants will include U.S. Ambassador Caroline Kennedy, who will be attending the event for the second year in a row after assuming her post in late 2013, and a senior U.S. State Department official in charge of arms control, according to the U.S. government.
Peace campaigners from around the world gathered to attend annual conferences organized by major Japanese anti-nuclear groups to push for the elimination of nuclear weapons.
At a conference convened Tuesday by the Japan Council Against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs, known as Gensuikyo, 90-year-old atomic bomb survivor Sunao Tsuboi stressed the need to join forces to eliminate nuclear weapons, recalling his painful memories and physical suffering after experiencing the blast from about 1.2 km away.
“Illnesses caused by the atomic bomb continue to haunt me,” said Tsuboi, one of the chairpersons of the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations.
He said he has been hospitalized a dozen times.
Muhammad Anshor, deputy permanent representative of Indonesia to the United Nations, said the horrific humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons witnessed in Hiroshima and Nagasaki is “one of the main driving forces” behind Indonesia’s support for a total ban on nuclear weapons.
“I hope the governments and civil society continue to work together in striving for a world without nuclear weapons,” he said.
Young peace activists from overseas also joined the event, with Mary Popeo, a 23-year-old from Boston, expressing her eagerness to take back her experiences in Japan to encourage young people to act.
“A lot of people tell me . . . that because we’re young maybe you can’t make as much difference, and people say, ‘You have no experience of war,’ or ‘You’re not an expert in nuclear weapons so why are you doing this?’ But you do not need to be an expert in nuclear weapons to see the humanitarian consequences,” she said.
Another conference was held Tuesday by the Japan Congress Against A- and H-Bombs, commonly known as Gensuikin.
Both Gensuikyo and Gensuikin will be holding anti-nuclear gatherings and other events in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki through Sunday.
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